First homebuyer numbers fall as prices rise

WINTER house price growth recorded in Melbourne last year has been confirmed in the latest release of Victoria’s Valuer-General figures.

But the rise in prices preceded a massive 22.7 per cent reduction in first homebuyers in the final three months of 2013, according to separate data from the Real Estate Institute of Australia and Adelaide Bank released yesterday.

An $11,000 (2.2 per cent) increase in the median Melbourne house price from $499,000 to $510,000 was recorded across the three months to September last year.

Units also rose to a new median price of $445,000, a 2.3 per cent increase.

The Valuer-General figures are considered the state’s most accurate and capture about 93 per cent of all sales through data supplied by the State Revenue Office of Victoria.

But the Housing Affordability Report released by the REIA and Adelaide Bank yesterday shows first homebuyers are being left behind by the market.

REIA president Peter Bushby said that Australia wide their numbers have fallen to about 12.5 per cent of the owner-occupier market and just 12 per cent of the Victorian market.

“Following the changes to the First Home Owner Grant introduced by the Victorian government, which skew assistance away from existing dwellings, the state continued to show a fall in the number of first homebuyers, down by 22.7 per cent over the quarter and 28.1 per cent for the year,” Mr Bushby said.

Victoria wide, house prices rose from $418,500 to $431,300.

“The residential housing property market (median house price) in Victoria increased by 3.1 per cent during the September quarter of 2013, having increased by 1.6 per cent in the previous quarter,” said Victorian Valuer-General, Robert Marsh.